Chapter 48: The Ghost Girl in the Bottle

Inside the room, the candle flame was as small as a bean; outside, the night was deep and dark. It seemed something had let out a few regretful smacking sounds, then tiptoed away.

Only then did the stepmother sigh in relief, then spread her palm and draw back the bamboo dragonfly she had sent out earlier to scout.

Five had been released, but only three returned.

Those two had not been destroyed by Old Qian.

Night always brimmed with danger. Had the stepmother relaxed even slightly just now, this battle would certainly not have ended there.

Lin Wanmo had detected three hidden, spying wills.

Xu Yuan inspected his three-eyed firelock; the secret mechanism powder was meant for casting bronze cannons, and after three shots, it had grown somewhat overheated.

Xu Yuan felt pained; after changing the powder, this artisan-crafted device had grown slightly more powerful, but its lifespan would likely be greatly shortened.

Setting the pistol aside for the moment, Xu Yuan began searching Old Qian's corpse—when Lin Wanmo saw him quickly rummage through Old Qian's pouch and pull out several dozen copper coins, he knew why this boy could bring back so much money.

"Why is this old thing so miserly!" Xu Yuan vented loudly.

He turned Old Qian's entire body over, yet found only a few dozen copper coins!

Lin Wanmo glanced at the corpse and said, "He is not old at all; at most thirty-five years of age. The decrepit appearance you see is because he had excessive contact with yin spirits. Even a divine cultivator cannot act without restraint."

Old Qian was obsessed with soul-refining, immersed in it, so his divine cultivation advanced rapidly, earning the master's favor.

But because of this, his body was damaged; even if Xu Yuan had not killed him, he would not have lived more than five years.

The master had bestowed upon him considerable wealth, which he spent entirely on researching soul-refining; he possessed nothing else, and in daily life sought only enough food and clothing to survive.

Xu Yuan searched him again and found a small booklet.

Opening it, he saw it recorded all of Old Qian's cultivation insights. This was actually his notebook; every time an experiment yielded results or a new idea arose, he jotted it down casually.

If a divine cultivator obtained it, they could easily become a second "Old Qian."

Moreover, they would not have to pay the price of a ruined body like Old Qian did.

For a divine cultivator, it could be said to be worth a fortune.

But for Xu Yuan and the stepmother, it was of little use.

The booklet also contained three pages dedicated to several divine cultivation methods; one was named "Divine Skin Art," which used one's own "True Spirit" to greatly enhance the defensive power of the physical skin.

The foundation of divine cultivation is strengthening one's own "True Spirit."

Xu Yuan did not know whether Old Qian had used the "Divine Skin Art" in the final moment—even if he had, he could not have withstood three shots.

The stepmother flipped through the booklet, then returned it to Xu Yuan: "Put it away for now; later, if you meet a friendly divine cultivator, you can sell it for a good price."

Old Qian possessed nothing else; his remaining assets were only those jars and bottles.

Xu Yuan then remembered he had also captured a "Bottle Ghost" from Qiao Ziang's study, which he had kept in the room without examining.

Xu Yuan opened a clay jar; inside, a piercing shriek rang out, stabbing straight into the soul. A cloud of black sand mist gushed from the jar and coalesced in the room into a fierce ghost with a human body and a scorpion tail!

Its two eyes were blood-red, and four pitch-black poison fangs protruded from its lips, constantly dripping with greedy saliva.

It was about to unleash its ferocity, but saw a short sword burning with Fu Zhong Huo on its surface, already waiting before its brow.

This was an eighth-rate "Xiao Ghost." It was a wronged soul that had died violently in the mountains, merged with some yet-unformed spirit creatures of the mountains to form a strange entity.

Feeling the terrible heat before its brow, it knew that if this thing pierced in, it could not withstand it.

So the Xiao Ghost obediently drew its body in, with a "puff" sound, re-scattering into a cloud of sand mist, and obediently returned itself into the jar.

Finally, it flicked out a small sand-mist tail and closed the lid itself.

Xu Yuan nodded in satisfaction: "This one understands matters."

Then Xu Yuan opened another jar.

This jar was the largest and most "exquisite" among the jars and bottles Old Qian had brought.

It was a blue-and-white porcelain jar, about three feet tall.

Xu Yuan opened the lid, and suddenly a little girl's head protruded from inside!

Lin Wanmo glanced into the jar and cursed angrily: "This person deserved to die!"

The girl's limbs had been severed and forcibly stuffed into the bottle. Old Qian's method differed from the usual "Fairy in a Bottle" found among martial artists.

The girl's limbs were severed and forcibly stuffed into the jar; after being fed for a period, the girl, already in unbearable pain, had various poisonous insects stuffed into the jar by Old Qian.

These poisonous insects gnawed at the girl's body day and night.

Unable to escape or hide, the girl was eventually eaten alive, dying miserably within the bottle.

Old Qian then used a secret method to seal the jar, refining the girl's wronged soul together with countless poisonous insects!

Who knows whose good daughter this was, so cruelly afflicted and thus harmed by him.

This "Bottle Ghost Girl" brimmed with resentment reaching the heavens and carried terrible poison; she was the most powerful yin soldier in Old Qian's possession.

The moment the female ghost in the bottle showed her head, blood dripped from her eyes, and she opened her fanged mouth, lunging to bite Xu Yuan.

Behind the girl's head grew a long snake neck!

Xu Yuan drove her back with Fu Zhong Huo, closed the lid, and for a moment did not know how to deal with this yin object.

Lin Wanmo said: "Refine her; help her transcend. In her state, her incomplete soul must endure the gnawing of poisonous insect souls every day; it is truly... too cruel."

Xu Yuan nodded, took a deep breath, twisted Fu Zhong Huo into a thin line, lifted the lid slightly, and sent the fire line inside.

After a moment, he reopened the lid; a wisp of curling blue smoke rose from the jar.

The smoke formed threads, swirling and drifting, then slowly dispersed.

Its form even gave a sense of relief and liberation.

Xu Yuan sighed inwardly, yet his mood was not particularly good.

For the remaining jars and bottles, Xu Yuan opened them all; they were all various fierce ghosts and yin soldiers, eleven in total.

The stepmother pushed the earthen jar toward Xu Yuan: "Feed them."

Xu Yuan was stunned: "All of them?"

"All of them!" Lin Wanmo wished he could personally go catch more for Xu Yuan to feed, refine into Longzhu Waidan, and greatly strengthen his power.

The moment that brat rushed out just now, Lin Wanmo knew this kid would never be "well-behaved" again.

If his strength isn't strong enough, a stepmother truly can't rest easy.

But among these Yin Soldiers, there were quite a few of that "Corpse Water Monster" kind of disgusting stuff, and Xu Yuan felt a bit unable to stomach them.

Lin Wanmo didn't force him; he just sat beneath Xu Huanyang's spirit tablet, wiping away tears he didn't even know existed, and spoke in a sorrowful tone: "Old Xu, you've only been gone a few days, and the child already won't listen to me. What's the point of me living? I'll go with you..."

Veins on Xu Yuan's forehead jumped; isn't this going a bit too far?

The acting is quite convincing! No wonder he's the owner of an old theater stage.

It's still the third watch today; begging for monthly votes!

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(End of this chapter)